Simple way to repair corrupted folders in Windows Live Mail (messages there, but not openable)

This is not a QUESTION, but an ANSWER to a question locked long ago, but might still be bothering users of Windows Live Mail.

The issue is as follows:

You go into a storage, or other, folder of email in WLM. Let's call it, for example, TAXINFO2016.

All the expected emails appear to be there. That is the subject lines, etc., show as expected.

You click on an email to open it and it opens to the content of a different email than the subject line indicates.

You do the same with other emails and each one opens up the SAME inappropriate email.

Here's a relatively simple procedure I finally used that worked, after trying many complex Microsoft and other procedures that (a) did not work and (b) were reported by many frustrated users to not help:

# Use the WLM export email function to export the emails from the misbehaving email folder to a folder outside WLM.

                    In this example you could name that newly created export folder TAXINFO2016-rescue.

# IN WLM create a new email folder with a different name than the misbehaving folder but similar enough to identify it.

                     Let's say you call it TAXINFO2016-good.

# In WLM open that new empty folder.

# Adjust the size of the WLM window to something not occupying full screen.

# Open the exported email's folder in a position on screen where you can see the open TAXINFO2016-good folder.

# Drag the emails (they'll have names such as 0D944B10-0000002C.eml) from the export folder onto/into the TAXINFO2016-good folder in the WML interface.  (If for some reason drag-n-drop doesn't work, use copy and paste.)

# In the WLM interface make sure the contents of TAXINFO2016-good are behaving properly.

# Close and reopen WLM to make sure that folder is still behaving properly.

# In WLM delete the old corruptly indexed TAXINFO2016 storage folder.

# ****** BACKUP YOUR WHOLE COMPUTER ******

(What, you mean you don't do whole computer backups? <g>)

This worked for me. It's pretty simple and fast compared to many of the other proposed fixes that were reported to not work.

One finally related tip:

I had for a year been filing certain related incoming email in one storage folder ASSUMING all was well in that folder because it looked OK.

That is subject lines, dates, etc., all looked as expected.

It wasn't until the end of the year when I needed to refer to one email in there that I discovered the frustrating corrupted index issue.

So if you've got some storage or other folder that's important, take a peek in there and try to open a couple of them BEFORE you need them.

And if you discover the folder has gone bad don't keep dragging new inhabitants into it until it's fixed.

Or at least make a new uncorrupted folder for future filings of that topic. ;-)

HTH

Alex

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Hello Alex ,  something that you  could possibly help me with?

I have a Dell Desktop using Windows 10 MS edge, IE. 3 days ago it crashed and my only option was to use the Dell Reset option to recover my folders and files, I lost all my apps when doing so, I was using Windows Live mail as my email app ,now it is gone and I had many things stored in the drafts and such, I cant find them, I did open another  account that was available in the windows 10 which is a pop3 account as I wanted to use the same email address I have had for 18 years. 

  it is like (......cebridge.net) and  many people know this is the way to contact me.

Is there some way to re-open the Windows live mail account or even find and import my data from the WLM to this new pop 3 account?

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Last updated October 20, 2023 Views 1,831 Applies to: